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- Title
AMORALITY EXPLAINED. ANALYSING THE REASONS THAT EXPLAIN THE STANDARD CONCEPTION OF LEGAL ETHICS.
- Authors
Arjona, César
- Abstract
The standard conception of legal ethics, based on the principles of partisanship and neutrality, affirms that lawyers must adopt a specific attitude towards their client's cause. The paper identifies and explores three main factors that have contributed to the success of this conception. Firstly, state-centred legal positivism as the dominant paradigm in contemporary Western legal theory. Secondly, the adversarial context, presumed to be the environment where lawyers typically perform their function as professionals. Thirdly, the agency model as a metaphor describing the relations between lawyers (agents) and their clients (principals). As all these elements carry with them problems of their own, this paper concludes by highlighting the limits of "amorality" as a general theory of legal ethics. Although moral neutrality is probably a justifiable position for the criminal defendant, it is difficult to extend its justificatory scope to many other areas of legal practice, especially in a globalised post-Westphalian world where lawyers typically act in ways that escape the traditional legal monopoly of the nation-state.
- Subjects
LEGAL ethics; LEGAL positivism; GLOBALIZATION
- Publication
Ramon Llull Journal of Applied Ethics, 2013, Issue 4, p51
- ISSN
2013-8393
- Publication type
Article